


Best Friends Forever

by mrs_leary (julie)



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF, Winnie-the-Pooh - A. A. Milne
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-05
Updated: 2012-02-05
Packaged: 2017-10-30 16:06:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/333562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julie/pseuds/mrs_leary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The end of <em>Merlin</em> is fast approaching, and Bradley can't bear to let Colin go. (Pun intended.) A fic in which all the best lines are by AA Milne.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Friends Forever

**Author's Note:**

> For all my dear friends who are also _Winnie–the–Pooh_ fans. ♥

♦

The end of filming for the fifth season of _Merlin_ was fast approaching, and Bradley’s heart was brimming over with all the things he had been meaning to say for so very long now, all the things that had been so easily lost in the banter, in the manliness, in the here-and-now. And he might occasionally be a bear of very little brain, but he knew that some things, if they didn’t get said in the very few right moments, might never get said at all.

The _Merlin_ cast and crew were, as so often, working in a wood near Cardiff, and Colin was sitting nearby frowning over his lines. Bradley was sure that Colin was word perfect in the scene as usual, but Bradley knew after all this time how much Colin bothered over getting the emotions right as well. And there was certainly something to be said for that notion. _And_ , thought Bradley, you can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes. Bradley wandered in Colin’s general direction.

‘There’s a copse over there,’ observed Bradley after a moment or two had gone by.

Colin looked up from his script with remarkably little reluctance. ‘So there is,’ he agreed.

‘I think we should go circumnavigate it.’

‘So do I,’ said Colin.

They walked in silence for a while, and then they simply kept walking right past the copse and on until all the bustle of the set fell away behind them, and they might have been all alone in the world. But they were together.

‘We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Colin?’ asked Bradley.

‘Even longer,’ Colin answered.

Bradley wondered if he himself did, after all, have a fund of courage stored somewhere deep within. He sidled up a little closer to Colin as they walked. ‘Col?’ he whispered.

‘Yes, Bradley?’

‘Nothing,’ said Bradley, taking Colin’s hand. Actually slipping his hand into Colin’s as if it had always belonged there. ‘I just wanted to be sure of you.’

They walked for a little longer, hand in hand. Colin didn’t let him go, but walked along as if this were perfectly natural. Colin was thinking. But eventually, when the time was right, he said, ‘Bradley…’

‘Yes, Colin?’

‘If ever there is a tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember.’

Bradley watched him, waiting. Open to whatever Colin wanted to tell him.

‘You’re braver than you believe, Bradley, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.’

‘ _Oh_ ,’ said Bradley as the breath sighed from him. Such a gift to be given!

‘But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.’

And that was the best gift of all.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ said Colin. ‘Stand still for a moment.’

Bradley wandered on, unable to help himself, but glancing back as Colin continued to follow after him no matter what, never letting go.

‘Here,’ said Colin, his hand slipping up so that he could hook his arm around Bradley’s – and he let his momentum turn them in to face each other. ‘Don’t be scared,’ Colin whispered, as his other hand came up to cup Bradley’s cheek. ‘Stay still.’

And Colin kissed him. It was the sweetest thing Bradley had ever known.

‘I wasn’t scared,’ said Bradley afterwards. ‘I’m never afraid with you.’

‘Good,’ said Colin, with a gentle smile.

‘If you live to be a hundred,’ Bradley ventured – so extravagantly that, if he had to, he could deny it later on the grounds of complete implausibility – ‘I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.’

‘Oh, _Bradley_ …’ Colin murmured so very fondly.

And the fact that Colin didn’t pick holes in the logic of that made Bradley feel brave enough to imagine all kinds of happy things. The Forest didn’t look so bleak and lonely anymore. Bradley decided to push on a little further… ‘Because what would I do? If it wasn’t for you.’

‘True. It isn’t much fun for One, but Two can stick together.’

‘Yes.’

‘Then that’s how it is,’ said Col.

♦


End file.
